MANILA, Philippines – The House committees on public works and highways, and government enterprises and privatization are seeking to tap the expertise of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) as they finalize amendments to the outdated Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law, an administration lawmaker said over the weekend.
Ang Kasangga party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco Jr., one of the original drafters of the BOT Law and head of the technical working group (TWG) formed by the two panels to put in the amendments, also strongly backed Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas to put on hold the privatization of one of Metro Manila’s primary rail commuter systems, the MRT.
He said revising the law would make the Aquino administration’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program effective and fair.
He said while the PPP is a crucial priority program of the administration that seeks to deliver more infrastructure projects to the country, and, therefore, spur socio-economic development, no official PPP projects have gotten off the ground.
“Among the things hindering the influx and launch of PPP projects is the present inadequacy of the current BOT Law,” Haresco said. “Unfortunately this is the only law of its kind, so it needs to be reevaluated urgently.”
He said the move to request inputs from ADB and WB representatives in the next hearing was upon the suggestion of former Manila congressman Ramon Bagatsing, one of the principal authors of the BOT Law, who said the agencies have “vast experience with PPPs worldwide.”
Among the priorities for the revision of the BOT Law is to make the implementing rules and regulations (IRRs) as relevant and take into account issues dogging PPP projects here and abroad.
Haresco said “the old issues that hampered old PPP programs still crop up today.”
“The task is to bring the IRRs as close to reality as possible,” he said, noting that when the law is crafted often only the executive committee is involved, and concerns raised by Congress and private sector are often overlooked,” he said.
He said the two panels’ strategy has been to closely involve representatives from the country’s economic and financial agencies, strategic think tanks, business organizations and others in the private sector, in addition to other members of the House.
Another concern the technical working group raised for close consideration were the rates of return and the guarantees given by the government to private firms participating in PPP projects, emphasizing that the terms of PPP should be equitable to both private entities and government, and at all times should never become onerous to the taxpayers, he said.
Haresco pointed out that in the United States, many PPP projects are actually in the red, and at the expense of the private entity which carry the burden of the risk.
The lawmaker also urged that the new law should “level the playing field,” by making it friendly for other private entities to be able to participate in PPP projects, pointing out that often, “many of the country’s major infrastructure projects were participated in by the firms of the country’s few elite families, essentially espousing an oligopolistic structure.”
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By: Paolo S. Romero
Source: The Philippine Star, Aug. 22, 2011
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